The fusion power presentation was extremely interesting. Potentially species-level implications, if they are right. I remember an Irish start-up with grand plans for a magnetic energy generation device that was going to change the world, and, oh yes, they were looking for venture capital .... One is inclined to take Lockheed Martin Skunk Works more seriously.

Drone Buzzes Jet Over New York City. This sort of feels like it should be the first page of a William Gibson novel. Or perhaps Black Mystery Drones are the new breed of UFOs. (If hysterical drone sightings haven't already happened, come to think of it, I feel certain they will.)

Salts From Europa's Ocean Reach The Surface. This is the strongest evidence yet that Europa's ocean is energetic enough to exchange minerals (and, presumably, water) with the surface ice. Interestingly, this finding came from data collected by Earth-based telescopes - I don't know if NASA's Juno probe (en route to Jupiter now) will be able to follow up the observations, or if we'll have to wait for ESA's proposed Icy Moons Explorer to do that.

Before the infamous Spanish Inquisition of the 15th Century, some 300,000 Jews lived in Spain. It was one of the largest communities of Jews in the world.

Today, there are about 40,000 or 50,000 - but that number could be about to swell dramatically.

In November, Spain's justice minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon announced a plan to give descendants of Spain's original Jewish community - known as Sephardic Jews - a fast-track to a Spanish passport and Spanish citizenship.

"In the long journey Spain has undertaken to rediscover a part of itself, few occasions are as moving as today," he said.

Anyone who could prove their Spanish Jewish origins, he said, would be given Spanish nationality.

^^Yeah, they've been doing that with pretty much all Spanish descendants. My mom was able to get Spanish citizenship even though she was born and raised in Mexico, and if I moved to Spain I'd qualify for citizenship after only 2 years cos I was born in Mexico.